


Exhibit of Love

by Hyrulehalfbreed



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Cultural Differences, Aliens, Alpha Eren Yeager, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Aphrodisiacs, Bottom Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Eren doesn't understand his instincts, Humor, Laboratories, Levi wants to return to his pack, Medical Procedures, Mildly Dubious Consent, Mpreg, Omega Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Omega Verse, Top Eren Yeager, slightly dark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-01-31 02:27:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12666393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyrulehalfbreed/pseuds/Hyrulehalfbreed
Summary: Deforestation, pollution, and poaching, these were things that humans brought with them wherever they went. Every other species was basically throw to the side like trash, whittling down gradually until extinction loomed just beyond the next horizon. Do other species realize they are dying out? Pack groups and nomadic creatures might not. After all, sometimes it was safer not to meet others of your kind if they were seen as rivals for food. However, one group of scientists is refusing to let one species die out. A breeding program has began, though the first problem is actually finding specimens to match up.Hanji’s group gets a lucky break when a ranger brings in a hissing and spitting specimen that had been ensnared in a farmer’s traps. The creature, pale skinned and topped with short dark hair that clashed with pale eyes isn’t exactly happy with the ensuing poking and prodding by the creatures that are three times his height and speak in a funny language he can’t understand. Nor is he enthused when he finds himself face to face with a strange behaving alpha of his own species.





	1. Rough Welcome

Clacks of the heels of well-worn boots followed Hanji as she hurried through the sterilized halls of the research compound. She was so hopeful that what she had heard buzzed over the radio from the clip on her ear wasn’t yet another false alarm. They’d been with far too many of those as of late, people claiming that they had encounters with specimens, but really the claimers were just looking for the reward money that was attached with providing information that lead to the capture of what Hanji and her group have been scrounging the last decade for.

Or the people would bring preserved parts of the creature the researchers desired, which was even more depressing. One of the worst cases was when they were brought a fresh corpse, body still warm, but lifeless. Being mostly carnivorous, the species was often killed on sight to protect livestock despite it being the farms’ fault in the first place for overtaking what once was the other’s habitat.

Knowing that the researchers had been so close, only to be disappointed was horrible. It also was yet another reminder of humanity’s cruelty shoved in their face.

As she took yet another sharp turn down a new hall, her thoughts began to wander.

Did a species that was perceived to be on a lower rung of intelligence to humans understand the concept of extinction? Were they aware that there was far fewer of others like them in the world if the creatures were ones that preferred to be nomadic, along with tending to either stick to themselves or in very tiny groups?

After all, in the case of this species it was safer not to meet others of your kind as they could be rivals for food or trying to take over another’s territory.

Without the technology or complete picture of the land taken from space that humans had at their disposal, the ‘world’ in the perspective of other creatures must be far smaller as they only knew what they could walk to in their lifetimes.

Still the fact that humanity was to blame for yet another looming extinction was a bitter pill for Hanji to swallow. Unfortunately, humans didn’t seem to be able to learn from their mistakes, greed being a far too powerful thing to ignore for most.

The exact same thing had happened on planet Earth and not the same scene was playing out like a tragic play. Humanity’s original planet had become septic, the atmosphere turned superheated and noxious as centuries of pollution, deforestation, war, and waste choked the life out of what was once the home of uncountable billions of lives.

So, what did humans do?

They jumped ship, literally.

It was just under a hundred years ago when they packed up their bags and moved to a new planet, habits unfortunately seemed to be inbred as it didn’t at all take long for humans to start abusing the resources of their stolen planet. Cities expanded rapidly, forests and jungles leveled to make room for farmland, and while the air wasn’t clogged with pollution, it had ships and cars buzzing through it. There were harder laws now being implemented to try and maintain this new environment, but so much damage had already been done.

Many researchers weren’t as hopeful as Hanji was in turning things around for some of the native species that had been whittled down by human poaching, lack of habitat, and other grievances that humanity dragged around.

This time around, Hanji was determined to rewrite the ending.

No matter the _human_ cost.

As a conservation biologist and researcher, she felt that it was her duty to step in where she could, or just break down the door to help the creatures that could not fight for themselves… at least not in effective, lasting ways.

The creatures her studies were most focused on were some of the most fascinating and beautiful in her opinion, even though most would rather claw her face off then let her near. At least that was the case with the wild ones, the hand raised members of the species were much more pliant.

These beings mirrored humans in just as many ways as they differed from them.

Standing at only eighty-six centimeters in height, the creatures stood at or below the waist of most adult humans. Though the size of a three or four year old human child, the creatures weren’t exactly cuddly. While completely natural for this world, they were aptly… alien to mankind.

Mostly teeth, claws, and attitude in a small scaly package.

Many had compared the small predators to looking like a mixture between mythical dragons and humans.

Rightly, they were named as Dracos.

There were less than two dozen specimens in captivity and reproduction efforts had been challenging for a multitude of reasons. Stress was a major factor with most wild caught doing poorly once in cages, something which Hanji hoped her team found a solution to with the recently finished huge outdoor enclosure.

Low fertility between the current individuals they had was something they tried to combat with drugs, but so far it had been without results. Dracos were discovered to have three sub-groups in terms of genetics. Alphas were aggressive and larger, striking with golden variants in their scales and typically loners until they took a mate.

The next were Betas with their brown tones, average in size and attitude, they seemed comfortable either being on their own or in very small groups.

Then finally there were the Omegas, what Hanji believed to be the key to saving the species. The smallest in size and holding shades of silver in their scales, they were quick, skittish, and agile.

Omegas were the most rare, usually moving in groups of their own or with Betas for protection. The human population as a whole decided around a hundred years ago that the Omegas were the far more beautiful of the subgroups and as such, they were hunted to near extinction for their hides. Omegas were also the only version of Dracos that the sex did not matter, both males and females were incredibly fertile and able to carry young.

Ideally the match up of an Alpha and an Omega would result in a large clutch of strong offspring. Most of the Dracos in captivity were Alphas and Betas, while these two could breed, the success rate for fertile eggs was far lower. A male Beta to a female Beta and a male or female Alpha to a Beta of differing sex was possible, but two Alphas as a whole could not breed together.  

Most of the subjects they had were male and either Betas or Alphas. There was yet another problem to contend with. Monogamy was apparently how the creatures mated, making breeding multiple pairs through natural means futile. Trying to artificially reproduce them had yet to prove prosperous either. Once successful in coupling, it was basically game over for bachelor life on both sides. The pair would stay together until one perished and even then some Dracos didn’t mate again after losing their first partner.

There was also getting over the natural aggression that the Alphas of the species had towards each other, the only company they kept was either there siblings and parents when they were young before departing when they were old enough to claim their own territory. After that it the only Draco that the Alpha would tolerate was its chosen mate.    

Another buzz of murmurs came from her earpiece and hearing a series of hisses in the background, along with the slightly panicked voices of her colleagues she quickened her pace until she was full on sprinting down the halls. Throwing open the doors with a bang she entered the large examination room. There was a big metal box sitting on top of the examination table the door of it was angled away from her, preventing Hanji from seeing its contents.

But she swore her heart almost stopped when Moblit turned to her and said one simple word.

“Omega.”

“Unmated?” The word came out stuttered, knowing some much hinged on that answer.

Getting a nod, the bespectacled woman couldn't help but squeal, the sound bouncing off of the metallic surroundings. The snarl and scrape of claws on the inside of the cage answered her and Hanji forced herself to quiet down.

“Poor thing, it sounds upset.” Not that she could blame it considering the circumstances. Her eyes trailed along the table as she moved yet closer, chest tightening at the sight of dark blue blood on the table.

“Its injured?”

Her tone was accusing as she rounded on the only stranger in the room, though her gaze softened just as quickly when she took in the forest ranger’s uniform. The man flinched, but managed to keep himself from shrinking back, a feat in itself with the overbearing presence of the scientist. His explanation was quick and clearly, he wanted to wash his hands of this as quickly as possible, seeing the torn-up sleeves of his shirt and bandages on his arms made it completely understandable.

“It was caught in of those rudimentary bear-claw traps on a farmer’s property. Why anyone still uses those crude things, I don’t know. But in this case, it was effective, caught at least one of the creatures that had been killing his sheep.”  

“Aw~, you like mutton, do you? Well, we’ll make sure to feed you plenty of that, honey.” Hanji cooed at the cage, leaning closed to the barred door of it despite the protests of her assistant. She leaned back just in time to avoid getting a small claw tipped hand to the face.

Internally and externally she was thrilled at the fact that she saw a few silver and black scales on the fingers before they retreated into the darkness of the box again.

“Whoops, almost got me, little one! You’re a bit feisty, aren’t you?”

The brown-haired woman laughed as she stroked the top of the cage, wishing that it was actually the beast she was petting. Hopefully, that would come with time. However, domestication of Dracos wasn’t exactly easy, it was similar to working with Earth tigers. While you could hand rear them from infancy and they seemed completely calm, they were never quite tame and demanded respect from the handler. One careless mistake and you’d end up dead.

One born and raised in the wild were even more dangerous and unpredictable.

“We were waiting for you before putting it under to take a closer look and treat the wound.” Moblit supplied as slowly got his heart rate back under control, the rest of the team was hurrying about in the background to prep for the examination.

The sound of ringing echoed in the room and it set off the Draco even more, the box tittering as the occupant twisted and thrashed in its small cage. Hanji nodded in appreciation to the man she affectionately called Goggles as he moved to brace the container.

The forest ranger winced as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and cut off the sound, sighing as he explained, “It was the farmer, no doubt demanding to know about the reward money for catching one of these.”

Pursing her lips, Hanji waved the man out of the room, eager to get rid of him so they could start their work on the newest precious addition to their work, “Take it up with the secretary.”

Realizing it was his blessed dismissal the ranger nodded his head quickly and made his way out. One of the assistants moved quickly to lock the door after him, just in case there was an accidental escape.

After sliding the holes on the side of the cage closed, a hose whose opening fit perfectly to the front of the cage was attached. The flow of gas started, they only had to wait for the sedative to take effect. For Hanji though, it was a painfully long process as she bounced on her feet and paced around the table. She just wanted to get her first real complete look at the Omega and see if it was everything she hoped for.

Gradually the growling from the cage quieted into confused chitters, then the noise eventually stopped completely. Still they gave it another two minutes of gas to make sure that the Draco really was out before removing the hose and carefully opening the door of the cage. Moblit was the one that reached inside to pull the creature out, ignoring Hanji’s protests of wanting to do it herself. He’d rather himself get injured than their more valuable, but impulsive, leader.

Carefully he brought the Draco into the light and the entire team gasped at the sight of it.

The cage was quickly pulled off of the table, a small display on the side of platform flashed, revealing the weight of the Draco being about eighteen kilograms or about forty pounds. All of it appeared to be tied up in muscle as there was little fat to be seen on the lithe predator. It was humanoid in appearance, just with some additional… features.

Gently, Hanji ran her fingers across the scale covered shoulders of the Draco, which had been placed to be laying down on its chest. She wanted to take a closer look, but she needed to attend to the wound on the other’s left ankle. Quickly she called for the team to step back as the top of the table flashed, taking a quick x-ray of the predator. A few presses to buttons on the device on her arm, Hanji summoned a holographic display to sit in the air in front of the group.

Tapping a few blocks on the screen, a small whirring sound started, and three short panels popped up from the table another panel moving to cover the top of the clawed foot. Now that the ankle was surrounded a few more flashes appeared. Then a three-dimensional enlarged image of the ankle flickered into life above the table.

The image wasn’t static though, showing each layer that made up the chunk of flesh. Moving from the first layer of skin down to the bone and then the marrow cavities inside of them. It was a bad fracture and deep cuts, but nothing that as life threatening. But treating it would be a challenge with the Draco not at all eager for human contact and frightened by its unfamiliar surroundings.

The group debated briefly on how to handle the wound before deciding. Hanji scrubbing up and donning gloves before picking up a scalpel. Carefully, they set first to cleaning the wound, fingering the flesh apart gently so the small jet of water could remove any of the loose contaminants. Some of the scales were broken and it would take a few sheds for them to be replaced. But for the comfort of their specimen and to keep them from catching on anything, they carefully removed them.

The scalpel moved slowly, scraping off the first layer of the flesh that was exposed by the wound, wanting to make sure any possibly infected tissue was removed before even thinking of closing it. If there were bacteria inside and it was enclosed, then infection would fester. Eventually the fluid produced by rotting flesh would make the wound bust open again and no one wanted that.

Also bleeding edges healed together faster, by debriding the wound and making the tissues bleed the healing process would actually be sped up in the long run.  Not that she expected the Draco to thank them for it as the beast growled lowly, but luckily stayed asleep. To be safe though, they carefully set a mask over the face of the Draco, a mixture of gas and oxygen regulating its breathing.

The gash on the front of the ankle wasn’t so bad and could be closed by using a small laser to seal the edges together. The back of the ankle was another story, the wound was too large and ragged from the Draco's earlier thrashing that the laser couldn’t be used, stitches were the only option that would require the least amount of care, which would help in not stressing out their specimen. Still the stitches would make the skin tight and though they did put in a few special stitches to hopefully reduce the tension, there was still a chance that it would rip open again.

They would just have to see what the future would bring.

To deal with the fracture they would need to place a cast, which of course wasn’t going to be appreciated by the Draco. However, it was the only option to make sure that the bones healed right since as a wild animal, cage rest was something that Hanji doubted the other would be happy with. It would also delay their breeding plans far too much as well.

It was their hope that having a mate, a natural caretaker, would help the Draco calm down and recover faster.

The cast would have to be made of something strong enough to withstand vicious claws and teeth, along with a material that would stay clean for a long time as multiple bandage changes would be difficult.

As they finally started to wrap the cast, Hanji let a smile finally return to her lips now that she was certain about the survival of their newest member.

Her thumb traced over the rough and slightly abrasive skin on the soles of the Draco’s foot. The palms of its hands would be of the same texture as it helped provided traction to easily transverse the many landscapes the planet provided. The creatures could live in a variety of environments from chilly mountain tops, bogs, forests, and deserts. Sharp claws on toes and fingers were for climbing, defense, and hunting.

The creatures were as comfortable walking on two legs as they were on four, the versatile joints in their limbs, along with higher placement of the sockets in their hips meant for natural movement when on hands and feet.

This was a small Omega, Hanji guessed that it only stood about eighty centimeters tall when on its back legs. But the long reptile tail sprouting from the base of the other’s spine stretched out to about twenty centimeters long.

Long, thin spines ran down from the base of the neck to the very tip of the tail. They didn’t look too menacing at the moment and were able to lay flat in little divots nature made into the flesh of the Draco, but in an instant, they could be raised for defense.   

Scales, skin that shined iridescent in the light of the pair of pale orange suns that hung over the planet during the nine hours of daylight. Now they glinted in the artificial light of the laboratory. From the lower back and to the point where a human’s belly button would sit on the stomach down, was all covered in a mixture of silver, grey, white, and black scales. On the elbows jutted a small, slightly curved spine, the hard piece of bone speckled with scales that stretched down to cover the outside of the elbow and down towards the hands, all but the palms and fingertips were covered in the scales.

Across the shoulders and upper back of the Draco were yet more scales, they ran up the back of its neck and along the edges of the cheeks to end at the corners of the eyes. The ears looked like long spiny scale covered fins that could move and fold independently to show the mood of the Draco.

The pattern that the scales painted were a beautiful thing, the edges of the patterns were soft and faded to different shades. The computer display automatically pulled up a picture on file that most closely resembled it, the displaying showing something that once was kept as a pet back on Earth. A ball python, more accurately, something called a fire silver streak, even in the past humans seemed to oh so enjoy playing with genetics and nature.

The last place that the scales called home were the wings that sprouted from its back. They were just over a meter long and just under a meter wide. Shaped similar to those of an Earth bat, they were covered in both a leather like material and scales, one large curved spike sprouted from the top of each wing which helped to keep the appendages close to the body when not in use and also were used for mating as the spike would help keep their mates close during the first coupling as it wasn’t usually a consensual affair.

After mating though, the two Dracos would be stuck together. Literally, as Alphas and Betas formed knots in the hope of successful breeding.  

There wasn’t just scales on the other’s body, but also hair. Black hair topped the Draco’s head and grew in a style that was similar to that of a human’s undercut. Past behavioral studies showed that Dracos used their own claws or sharp stones to style their own hair. There was one more set of spikes that sat on the Dracos body, sitting at the base of the skull were three ten-centimeter long thin curled spines that could be used to protect the back of the creature’s neck if it tilted its head back.

What flesh that didn’t have scales was covered in incredibly pale skin, which included the majority of the Draco’s torso, arms, and face.

Carefully, they moved the creature to lay on its back, Hanji nodded to Moblit when he pulled out a needle to take several blood samples from the Omega. The rest of the team were doing their own jobs, trimming claws down, taking hair and scale samples, and placing a microchip under the skin behind the left ear of the Draco.

Hanji was focused on finding out the most pressing question in her mind. Her fingers pressed and massaged the slit that contained the genitalia of the Draco. It was a patient process, but exposing it this way was could be less invasive than the other option.

“We have a penis!” Hanji joyfully cried, grinning and unabashed by the looks some of her male colleagues gave her.

Gently, she moved her fingers inside of the vertical slit, now able to have more room to examine now that the male genitalia was resting against the Draco’s stomach. Her fingers didn’t enter the womb, but she felt around the tight entrance of it. Picking up a small probe, only the width of a needle and as flexible as thread she slid it into the womb to take a sample of material from inside of it and also take internal images. It would all tell them how fertile the Omega was in theory and the capacity he had for future clutches.

When she finished her work was around the same time that the rest of her team did, she took off her gloves and stuffed them into the pocket of her lab coat. But her hand quickly returned to run over the skin and scales of their precious new addition, cooing softly as she ran a thumb down one cheek of the Draco careful of the mask still placed on his face. Despite her willingness to sacrifice everything for her subjects, she wasn’t eager to lose her nose.  

“Oh, you’re a special one, aren’t you?”

Her eyes flickered up to the display watching as the samples were instantly examined and the data rolled across the panel. The tests showed that everything was in working order internally to produce offspring and he was definitely of breeding age. The Omega was lacking the visible signs of having a mate, which was confirmed by the internal examine with the lack of enlarged tubes and no scars being present in the lining of the womb from eggs being pressed out. The external hints were the lack of scars in the shape of vicious looking bite marks on the inner thighs and the sides of the Omega’s neck.  

He was definitely of breeding age and while he was littered with scars, little patches of hardened tissue that prevented scales from growing back. They told of the dangerous and hard life he had led up till now. He was a survivor, and it made hope rise up within her.

“Moblit?” Her voice was soft as he ran her hands through the inky strands of hair on the Draco’s head.

“I got a name for him.”

“Mhm?” Came the soft hum from the man as he continued to take notes.

“Shorty.”

The answer resulted in a snort from the team, yes, the other was indeed smaller than others of his kind. Though he certainly weighed nearly the same with so much mass tied up in muscles, still some extra weight on him wouldn’t hurt if he was going to be bred.

It was a _cute_ name for something that would gnaw your face off.

“I think he’d be a good match for Titan.”

“ _What?!”_

That certainly got everyone’s attention, Moblit almost dropping the sensitive equipment he was holding while Goggles shattered the beaker in his hands as he whirled to look their leader.

“You can’t be serious, Hanji, he’ll kill him!” Moblit wasn’t one to argue with Hanji’s eccentric behavior normally as it was usually grounded in genius. However, this was not one of those times, what she was suggesting was putting this tiny Omega with an Alpha that was of a subspecies of Draco that grew much larger and was typically more aggressive than the rest of their kind.  

“We don’t know that.” Hanji argued back, forcing her voice to lower when Shorty twitched under her fingers.

“There are only nine currently known living specimens of Titan’s breed left. Five of which are here in this lab and none of the other four are good candidates for him. This little guy’s a fighter, I think that he could hold his own against Titan. We just… ya know, have to stack the odds a little.”

There was a lull in the murmurs, they all knew what Hanji said was true, but at the same time the thought of losing the Omega they waited so long for in what was not quite a shot in the dark was anxiety inducing. It was more like a shot with a very small penlight attached to the gun with duct tape.

“Well, for now we should focus on making sure he heals,” Rico finally answered, the fair haired woman huffing as she finished writing a small note on the display. “He’ll be put into a quarantine cage for the time being for observation. We'll observe his behavior for a few weeks and then decide what to do with him.”

Hanji looked a little put out by the prospect of waiting, but the rest of the group looked relieved. Undoing a few latches on the examine table had the top of it floating upward, the team grasping the edges of the little platform to guide the hovering piece of tech towards where they would be keeping their newest addition.

After making sure that the injured and slowly rousing Draco was as comfortable as he could be, Hanji couldn’t stand just waiting around. Giving the order for her to be notified as soon as Shorty was up and moving, Hanji hurried down the halls with Moblit hot on her heels. There was one destination in her mind and the man knew it, but he didn’t try to stop her. No, he was going along to ensure her safety as was protocol to have at least two handlers present when working with Dracos.

She stopped before a reinforced iron door with a wide grin, casting a glance at Moblit before pressing the code into the keypad, swiping her security card, and giving a retinal scan. Only after these three tasks were completed did the light on top of the door flash green and the loud click of the lock disengaging sounded.

The pair opened the door just enough so that they could slip inside before shutting it behind themselves. The room was fashioned to look like the inside of a cave, had a small pool, and was filled with foliage. Tall rocks provided climbing enrichment and the tops of the pillars served as basking spots closer to the sources of artificial sunlight.

Their charge didn’t instantly appear and considering it was near the late evening that wasn’t surprising. Dracos were far more active in the daytime than at night when the temperature was cooler.

“Titan! Come to mommy!” Hanji called, while the space was large, her voice echoed off of the false rock facades.

The sound of claws scraping gathered the human's attention upwards and from the tallest spire of rock appeared a small head of tanned skin, golden scales, and brown hair. A chirp of greeting came from the creature, though he seemed reluctant to come down from his perch. However, as teal, snake-like eyes watched Hanji reaching into the pouch hanging from her belt there was an explosion of sound.

Titan scrambled to right himself onto all fours before leaping off of the rock, his wings beat in the air to slow his descent before landing on his feet and trotting his way over to Hanji. The woman held out his expected treat, a piece of raw meat.

Now down at eye level it was easy to see the differences in this subspecies to that of Shorty’s. There were only two categories of Dracos, the names decided by a biologist that used to be a member of the military, Dot Pixis.

Soldiers and Warriors.

Shorty was part of the Soldiers, they marked with several characteristics. They had the ability to live in almost any environment, from deserts, coastlines, forests, plains, and mountainous areas. Betas and Omegas were more commonly found in groups of this subspecies, Alphas living by themselves or with their mates once they reached adulthood. The only hair that they had was found on their heads.

Warriors had some key differences. First, they were larger than the Soldiers, their starting height was usually eighty-eight centimeters and they only grew taller. The tallest they had ever recorded was actually one of their specimens at one hundred centimeters tall. All members of this group were more likely to be loners rather than living with another of their kind that wasn’t their mate or kin. They were also many times more aggressive towards each other than Soldiers and some were reported in partaking in cannibalism on both Soldiers and other Warriors. It was because of their larger size and aggression that this subgroup had almost been wiped out. Larger bodies meant more valuable pieces for poachers to hock, their appetite led them to invading farms and getting killed. Their habitat was also much smaller, being mainly forests and mountains, which were some of the places hit the hardest by human development.

The final difference the Warriors claimed was the fact that they had thick, silky fur that matched the color of the hair on the top their heads running along their spines down their back and to the very tip of their tail. They still had the spikes that Soldiers had, but they were hidden from sight by the thick mane.

At ninety-two centimeters tall when Titan stood on his back legs, Titan would tower over Shorty, his extra height also gave him an advantage in the weight department as well. The hair on his head was short and wispy, the bangs almost threatening to cover his eyes. The color palate of his scales was black, gold, and tones of honey, the honeycomb like patterns when compared to that of an animal from Earth matched him to a cinnamon cypress ball python.

He was young, hatched in the lab after his egg was found in the den of his parents. They had been slaughtered by hunters whom were looking to avenge a comrade they thought had been killed by Dracos, but was later revealed to be a different predator all together.

Being hand raised by humans meant that Titan was incredibly friendly towards his handlers… though now that he had reached adulthood, if he caught the scent of another Draco that was a completely different story. Titan’s instincts made him hostile at the smell of his own kind, particularly other Alphas. As such, Titan had unfortunately grown up away from other Dracos for the most part. When Titan was younger he had been able to interact with a few other young Dracos, though with bars between them to make sure no roughhousing escalated to something deadly.

Now though, as the desire to establish his own territory and find a mate had reared its head, the little visits had stopped. Sadly, Hanji expected that Titan was rightly confused by what was going on with his body without any adult Dracos around to offer guidance.

As the creature trotted closer, Moblit and Hanji held their breaths, they knew the scent of Shorty was thick on them and the initial reaction to it might give them a hint on how the two meeting might go.

But just as the Alpha got within touching distance he froze. Nose twitching, he backed up a few steps a confused churr coming from his lips as he stared at the pair. Obviously perplexed by what he smelled. A growl started in his throat before petering out again, instead his brows furrowed as he tried to figure out how to react to the scent.

“Come on, hun.”

Hanji's urges were gentle, she moved to sit on the floor and Moblit moved into a kneeling position as they watched Titan pace a few steps before finally moving closer. He creeped slowly on all fours, head low to the ground and muscles tense with either fight or flight response. His wings were folder close to his back and his tail twitched in agitation.

Offering the piece of meat as reward, Hanji continued to encourage the feisty beast, “There’s my brave boy, a little closer now. I have something I think you’ll like.”

The scaly ears stretched and turned inwards to catch more of the woman’s voice until Titan was crouched by her knee. He snatched the piece of meat quickly from her hand and stuffed it into his mouth. When no reprimand was given, Titan’s courage seemed to grow, sliding back into his usual confident self.

Sitting back, he puffed hot air into Hanji’s face and then shifted over to the same to Moblit, the humans returning the action with fond smiles. This was the usual way that Dracos greeted the rare few they were friendly with. Hanji always marveled at how lucky they had been to get Titan before he was really born. The other Warriors they had the team had obtained when they were already a bit older and they were still much less inclined to show affection to their handlers. They weren’t aggressive per say, but they wanted little to do with humans.

That out of the way, Titan immediately started sniffing at their clothing, small hands moving to tug at the fabric from time to time in curiosity. Thankfully, the Draco knew to be careful with his claws by now, in the past many pairs of pants and lab coats were reduced to ribbons after a few short days.

There was little that could be said or done once Titan decided on a mission and he was searching the humans desperately for any hint to the strange smell they had on them. He zeroed in on the pocket of Hanji’s coat, pawing and batting at it while chirping until finally the woman withdrew the source.

The gloves.

As soon as they were free of the restraints of cloth, Titan plucked then from Hangi’s grasp. He brought them to his nose, sniffing them deeply with a look on concentration on his face. Then much to their surprise, started to purr.

He liked the smell, that much as obvious and when Moblit tried to take them back, Titan immediately scrambled out of reach with his new prize clutched to his chest.

“I don’t think he wants to eat them so I guess we can let him keep them.” Moblit relented, rolling his eyes as Hanji cackled beside him.

“Oh boy, I don’t think that’s the only thing he wants to do with them!~”

Hanji didn’t seem to be wrong though and Moblit actually felt a little hopeful for the prospect of breeding Shorty and Titan together. Still they couldn’t be sure how the two would get along face to face with what was probably a lack of manners on Titan's part and Shorty’s distaste for his situation. The silver scaled Draco’s behavior was still an unknown, he had seemed grouchy and willing to attack while in the cage. That might partly be because of the pain he was in, they’d have to wait to see.

Did they expect the Omega to eventually curl up in their laps for tummy rubs like Titan? Not in the least.

Titan cocked his head at the two not going after him for the gloves, but he seemed to decide to not take any chances. He disappeared into the foliage, no doubt to his den to hide the source of his fascination away.

“We should leave him alone to let him get used to the smell.” Hanji mumbled, still looking over the moon with how things were progressing. Moblit agreed and the carefully made their way out of the room. A beep on their earpieces told them that Shorty had finally woken back up. No one in the lab, human or otherwise, were aware of the crazy adventure they were about to embark on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp.... Um, there ya go. This story has been on my mind for stupidly long and I wanted to get it out there, there's another plot that still rattles my brain I might eventually type out. For now though, I swear I'm going to work hard in writing on all my stories whenever I have time between all the work and travel my daily life requires.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you really enjoyed this introduction chapter. If you did please leave a comment, it makes my day and motivates my fingers across the keyboard.
> 
> Levi and Eren do have speaking capability between each other, just not between their species and humans.


	2. Hell of a Wake-Up

There were a few things that Levi did not like, okay that was a lie. 

There were many things he detested and the list only grew with each passing day since his hatching. When had first opened his eyes to the pale morning light slipping into their cave, something had felt wrong. The unnerving sensation stayed latched onto him, acting as his silent shadow that stalked him through the following hours. 

Now, waking up for the second time in a day, he found himself wishing greatly that he had listened to his gut. Then again, his stomach was the one that had given him mixed signals, both of unease, but also hunger. There was the need to hunt for not only himself, but for his small pack of three, which forced him finally out of the den and off to look for food. He hadn’t woken his companions, didn’t see the need to with their home in a small crag of rocks that no other creature could easily access. Also Isabel was egg heavy, waking her up or taking Farlan with him to search for food would be an unneeded stress despite the red headed omega’s assurance it wasn’t. 

No, he decided to let the two mates sleep on. After that…. Things got hazy for his groggy mind. 

Levi didn’t have the perpetual habit for napping and the fact that he had fallen asleep at all was concerning when he usually had a difficult time slipping into slumber’s embrace normally. Slowly he started to categorize everything he observed as he got unsteadily to his feet. 

While trying to keep his balance Levi started his list of several _very_ unpleasant things. 

One, his whole body ached and his tail had an uncomfortable kink in it from laying in an unnatural position for so long. 

Two, his nose was being assaulted by too many unfamiliar smells at once and it was starting to give him a headache.

Finally, he didn’t know where the fuck he was. Wherever he had ended up, it was a far cry from his den and the familiar forest that made up their territory. He couldn’t catch even a trace of his packmates’ scent either.

It seemed like he was stuck in the strangest cave in existence with the walls being perfectly smooth to the touch and the same tone of white. For a moment he wondered if he had perhaps fallen into a hole, knocking himself out from a hard landing. But what was under his fingers and feet didn’t feel like dirt, rock, or anything organic. His claws scraped uselessly against the odd material, but it offered neither purchase nor give.

He took a step to further explore… or at least, Levi had tried to.

The sharp yelp escaped his lips without his permission as his body pitched forward as a sharp pang of pain erupted from his ankle up his entire body. Only the rapid beating of his wings kept him from falling flat on his face, his tail also sweeping in front of him to help keep himself upright. 

A quick glance downwards and Levi was honestly shocked than he hadn’t noticed the abomination on his left leg sooner. It was green in color and the texture of it was like that of dry mud, but even as he scratched and clawed at the material it didn’t flake off. It was heavy and stiff, keeping him from moving his ankle. The smell coming from it was maddening, a mixture of something strange and his own blood.

The combination of scents sent Levi into a frenzy, desperately he tried to rid himself of it like it was some stubborn tick. In his attempts he landed back on his side, but he barely registered this fact with more than a grunt at the fall, far more preoccupied as he clawed and even bit at the hard material. 

However, it was to no avail. 

Panting, Levi let out a short yowl to voice his frustrations, though as soon as he did he froze. It was a foolish mistake, while his kind were predators in their own right, it didn’t mean that they were invulnerable. There was larger and nastier creatures out there that could make a meal out  of him even while he was in good condition. Curling his legs and arms under him, Levi crouched, the spines on his back raising in defense and his wings lowered to protect his sides. He was ready to take flight if he needed to, but that was only a temporary solution. Their kind weren’t strong fliers, they could only fly for a few short minutes and it was horribly taxing.

No, if anything they were closer to gliders. Flight was a means of escape more than that of travel.

An attack never came, no monstrous thing with drooling jaws or strange weapons that could pierce through his flesh. 

Nothing. The strange cave remained silent and static around him.

Levi knew that he should probably feel relieved by that fact, but he wasn’t. It just left him with more questions as he started to put together how he had ended up in this place. Slowly he backed himself into a corner, while it might limit his escape routes it at least left fewer places a threat could come from. 

It all started with that strange disembodied set of jaws that had snapped around his foot and refused to let go when he was hunting. No matter what he did, he couldn’t escape the hold. There were no eyes to claw out nor a nose to punch, just jagged teeth stronger than stone. There was a vine just as strong as the teeth tied to the jaws than kept Levi rooted to the spot. 

Struggling only had tired Levi out further and spilt more of his blood, he wasn’t sure if it was the smell of blood or the noise he had been making that summoned the owner of the trap. It didn’t matter as he found himself staring at what he had come to dread most. 

A  _ Taker _ .

These creatures vaguely resembled Levi’s own kind, but they were a hell of a lot uglier in his opinion. 

The bastards were also much bigger. 

The name was what his kind had come to call these strange monsters. His bearer had told him stories about how these things seemed to have randomly popped up one day. The name was adequate with their behavior, they simply took what they wanted, territory, plants, predators, and prey alike had nothing they could do to ward off these beings. Instead it was the rest of the world that had to move around them when the Takers came blundering in. 

While Takers had no claws or teeth, they had strange weapons that were far more deadly and efficient. Tools that shot out strange stones and burning beams that could result in instant death. While Takers aptly took life, they also took care of certain things.  

After leveling forests and anything they thought of as in their way, they would either make massive colonies out of odd materials or they would plant fields and keep rather pliant animals in cages for their own consumption. 

Several turns of the seasons ago a small pack of Takers had muscled in on the edge of Levi’s territory and established fields and flocks of rather stupid sacks of meat that wandered in endless circles in their pens. While Levi’s pack decided to, for the most part, keep away from the Takers, whenever the season of frost and snow came the temptation of the conveniently packaged prey with no place to run would sometimes prove too great. 

Typically, Levi never hunted anything that either he or his two packmates could devour in a day. It was wasteful to do otherwise, which was why the large baaing creatures in the Taker’s care were off the menu. However, when it was cold the meat would stay edible longer and as such taking larger prey was actually more convenient in winter time so they didn’t have to hunt the next day and could stay curled up together in the warmth of their den. 

The first frost had yet to appear, but the temperature was certainly dropping with each passing rise and fall of the pair of suns. Levi hadn’t been planning on hunting any of the larger animals from the Taker’s land, instead he was pacing the edge of it, hoping to catch some of the smaller wild plant eaters that often darted in and out of the fields to steal some of the seed and feed that was fed to the delicious fluffballs that wandered behind the fence. 

That’s how he had ended up in that strange thing that trapped him, it was a tool of the Taker apparently. Levi had tried to fly, panic gripping him at the sight of the portly, scale-less creature. Levi assumed that it was male with the lack of the extra flesh on its chest and the smell it gave off under the scent of dirty and the farm animals. 

The Taker only chattered at him, flailing his arms when he caught sight of Levi and pulling out a small thing from a pocket of his weirdly removable pelt. Levi had been certain that he was about to be killed, but the man only yelled, body moving animatedly the whole while as it spoke into the device. ‘

After that things seemed to move far too quickly for Levi, another Taker shortly arrived, and he forced him into a small portable cave thing. Then, despite Levi's threatening growls and clawing at the opening, the new Taker carried him to one of those loud beasts that had the oddest symbiotic relationship with each other Levi had ever seen.

These were what Levi’s kind called “Growlers”. Aptly named for the constant stream of noise they made when they were apparently awake. These things could have many mouths and their insides didn’t appear to be slimy or bloody like any other creature. The Growlers would swallow and spit out Takers without damaging them, carrying them great distances and at amazing speeds. What the Growlers got out of aiding the two-legged creatures Levi hadn’t the slightest idea.

His prison was dropped onto the back of the large beast and then things moved quickly, Levi couldn’t see anything but the wind howling in his ears and the vibrations running up his legs told him that they were moving at an incredible speed.

Moving further and further away from Levi’s home.

Away from his pack.

Away from all that he knew.

Next thing he remembered was briefly a lot of noise and pale grabbing hands, after that he woke up where he was now.

Levi found himself still less than enthused about the situation even though his mind had finally caught up with what had happened. He was in another weird, white cave and he was stuck with more Takers. While he couldn’t see them, Levi knew that they were responsible for his predicament. He could smell them on his own scale and skin making him shudder, still he was confused.

Why was he still alive? He had entered their territory that seemed more than enough to warrant death, but instead he was left locked away. Was he being stored away to be used for food like the fat Taker did with his animals?

Something inside of Levi told him that wasn’t the reason. How his gut knew so didn’t matter, he was already had a painful reminder today what happened when he didn’t follow it.

That was how he ended up in this fucking mess after all.

Levi sat in his claimed corner for what felt like hours, tense and ready to fight if anything invaded his new space, but eventually he exhausted himself out doing so. Sighing softly, he decided to explore, the cave was completely barren and unnatural. There was a small overhanging thing that gave one corner more shadow and Levi felt more secure hunkered down in it. Another corner held a tiny pool of water, which Levi cautiously, then deeply drank from.

The last corner of the room held a large flat rock which was incredibly warm, heat radiating up from the rock and down from the ceiling made Levi almost purr at the feeling when his body had just felt the first bite that was the chill of the coming winter. Both the rock and the shadowed corner held large amounts of soft, dry grass.

Levi had to admit that it was a nice, if strange cave. He might have even enjoyed it in a different circumstance, but it just felt wrong. Everything reeked with the scent of Taker and it made his spines refuse to lower.

With the ache in his leg inescapable, Levi discovered that laying on the hot rock soothed the pain to a dull throbbing. Still he was curled up in a way that, if he needed to, he would be up and bolting in only a matter of seconds.

There was a small hissing sound that roused Levi out of his almost sleeping state, head snapping to the side to see at the base of the rock nearest the wall now sat…

A pile of meat?

Levi didn’t know where in the world it came from and his stomach rumbled audibly at the sight of it, but he forced himself to ignore it for a few more minutes. It could be a trap and it wasn’t eager to land himself in something like that. Eventually though, he did creep closer to it, sniffing it before curling his lip in distaste.

It was old, while not rotting, it wasn’t fresh and he could tell that it was cold. Levi wasn’t a scavenger and he wouldn’t lower himself to be one. Also, not knowing where this meat came from didn’t sit right with his instincts. If couldn’t see the creature it came from, it wasn’t going in his mouth, despite his stomach’s protests.

\-------

Hanji visibly deflated, sagging deeper into her chair as she watched the screens that showed Shorty turning away from the food they had slipped into his quarantine chamber. The scans from earlier told them that the Draco’s stomach was empty which meant that he had to be hungry, but he was clearly ignoring their offer. They had been careful to not handle the meat with their bare hands to keep as little of their scent off it, however, it seemed that Shorty still didn’t care.

They needed the little guy to eat and they had carefully hidden the predator’s oral medication inside of the chunks of flesh so that it could be administered with as little stress as possible.

Now though, they had to find a new angle.

“Maybe he’s just not feeling up to eating, some animals don’t like to eat when they are in pain.” Rico offered from her perch on the arm of the couch that some of the other team members sat on. All of them were hesitant to let the omega out of their sights, fearing that he might just poof out of existence if they turned their gaze away for even a moment. Then it would be right back to square one.

“But our Dracos will eat no matter how they are feeling.” Goggles pointed out as he clicked about on the hologram screen drifting in the air at his eye level.

“They also have grown up in a world where sometimes meat just magically falls in front of them.” Moblit muttered, rubbing the back of his neck as he could already see a possible problem with feeding Shorty.

“You mean he’s different because he’s a hunter, so he might only take live food?” Rico summarized getting a nod from the rest of the team as Hanji piped up, “That by itself wouldn’t be too big of an issue, but it means that giving Shorty his medicine is going to be difficult. Sure, we could inject the medication under the skin of the animal we throw to him, but we won’t be as certain if he ingests it or not.”

“I’d hate to have to resort to gassing or darting him each time we need to check on the poor thing.” Hanji groused, flopping forward on the consul with a pout, though her eyes remained always on the screen.

“It can’t be helped if he won’t accept human contact.” Moblit soothed, watching how Shorty spread his wings wide over the rock to regulate his internal body temperature and soak up even more heat. On this planet there wasn’t such a straight line dividing reptiles and mammals like there was on earth, Dracos sat somewhere between the two categories.

“In many cases with feral animals like dogs and cats, if they are put in a situation with a companion animal that is of the same species as them whom is friendly with humans they usually warm up eventually to people. That’s what we are hoping will eventually happen when we introduce Shorty and Titan.” Hanji grumbled, giving a weak thumb’s up to Goggles as he set a cup of coffee by her hand. She didn’t need to ask if it was decafe or not, her team wouldn’t let her near the more powerful bean juice after the last time.

“That’s still weeks away,  **_if_ ** we go through with it.” Moblit’s tone took a harder edge and the way that Hanji stiffened under the hand he had on her shoulder told him that he should prepare himself for a fight.

“Come on, Mobly!”

The volume and whine in the head scientist’s voice, along with how she jerked herself upright at such a high speed would have made any other man flinch, but he was far too used to it by now.

“You saw the way Titan reacted to Shorty’s scent, he was interested!”

“Interested in mating or eating him? We don’t know that, Shorty’s an unmated omega, we don’t know how lucky we are going to get for something like this to happen again if it goes wrong.” Moblit kept his voice firm and even, he acted as her anchor, keeping her from flinging herself over the edge with possibilities over resources.

“He wasn’t chewing on the gloves, so I don’t think the smell is a food response trigger.” Hanji huffed back, but she had lost some of her conviction. Moblit was the one that would always point out Murphy’s law and set the scales to show the risks along with the rewards. She knew that he wasn’t trying to stack the deck in his favor by arguing with her in front of the rest of the team. No, the team was too closely knit for them not to be involved in every step and decision.

“Right now, it doesn’t matter, we can’t do anything until Shorty is healed. We are just getting worked up over the _hypothetical_.” Nifa countered from her spot on the couch next to Kenji. 

Hanji glanced at the reddish copper haired girl and sighed, giving in to the argument for now. There were a total of six people on the first line of the research team and Hanji couldn’t imagine doing the projects while missing even one of them.

There were a total of six members on the team that were constant. Nifa a bright young woman that was a charming mixture of serious and playful with her bright red hair cropped short around her face. Kenji was more of a serious and sarcastic young man with fluffy, styled back dark brown locks, however he was the most likely to be found whittling hours of his free time away inside of the enclosures trying to win over the grumpier of the Dracos. Goggles was the most focused in the group and the best with technology, he was behind all of the landscaping of the exhibits and studied the habits and personality of their charges to know exactly what kind of habitat they would be most comfortable in. Rico was as sharp tongued and she was mentally, while she was third in command she was also the newest member of the group. The silver haired woman’s credentials though were nothing to scoff at, having worked beside the leading Draco biologist for around a decade before joining Hanji’s team.

Then there were the two heads of the team, Hanji and Moblit. While Miss Zoe was the undisputed leader and a certified genius, she was headstrong and emotional. Those attributes though only furthered her research though. The one always calling her ‘back to earth’, ironic as the saying was now, was Moblit. He was the books and grants pusher, the one to balance the team with logic and an equal amount of stubbornness to match Hanji’s.

There were higher-ups that the team had to answer to and beg for funding from, but it wasn’t often that any of them showed their face. While at first being annoyed by the disinterest that the governments had in her program it all changed when the scientist came up with a devious plan to  _ make _ the government both care and keep the money flowing in.

Combining their research lab with the highest profiting zoo in the country. People from all over the planet and then some were eager to see even a glimpse of the Dracos and the creatures provided enough natural entertainment to enthrall the public into pressuring for more efforts to be made to preserve the species.

Currently all but Shorty were on display with doors leading to outdoor enclosures to be viewed, the four layers of fencing ensured the safety of both Dracos and the viewers. Each of the enclosures though had to be a certain distance away from each other to keep them from being worked up by the scent of another of their kind so close to their territory.

One of the team’s greatest undertakings was just recently finished. Half an acre in size the habitat was made to simulate the wild as much as possible and would hopefully produce a stress-free environment and simulate a place that young Dracos could learn things that had been bred into them to centuries to perhaps be reintroduced into the wild one day.

It was their hope to put a pair in there for breeding and now Hanji was certain that it was going to be Titan and Shorty if everything went right.

“I think if we give Shorty a small rabbit we won’t have to worry so much about getting him to take the medication. The only thing that he won’t eat will probably be the large bones and the fur.” Goggles finally chimed as he finished checking what the computer said they had in stock in terms of live feed.

“I’ll leave you and Nifa in charge of that.” Hanji answered, the two nodding their heads quickly and leaving the room. It would take an hour to get all the preparation work done with the rabbit before it was actually given to Shorty.

“By the way, I think Hanji was right about Shorty’s scent not being a food response from Titan.” Rico’s voice gathered the group’s attention to one of the small screens on the wall, that which showed the inside of Titan’s den.

Hanji was cackling while Moblit only sighed as they took in the sight of the Draco rutting against the cave floor.

A promising sign indeed.    
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter, hope you enjoyed it! Sorry for the long wait, in the next chapter Levi and Eren will finally meet, yes, Levi and Eren will be able to speak and hold conversations naturally between them. Humans and Dracos just can't understand each other.


	3. Enclosured

Note: When humans are speaking to each other in the presence of a Draco, since Levi and Eren cannot understand their words human speech will show up as: _"Hanji please stop screaming in the background about babies and penises."_

Now let's get back to the story, shall we?

 

 

 

About three dozen cycles of the day had now turned, or at least Levi had thought that was as many that had passed since he found himself in this shitty situation. The strange mini suns that hung in the strange cave’s ceiling would dim and eventually go dark after a certain amount of time, then gradually brighten again. It would have been an accurate illusion if not of the fact that Levi never saw a trace of any moon or stars taking over the disconcertingly smooth surface that hung over his head.

It was unnatural.

Then again nothing had been _normal_ for Levi from the moment that he had been caught in that damn trap thing.

One truth he had come to understand was the odd Takers he had been saddled with also fit the "strange" category and were infuriatingly… confusing.

Food was delivered to him a couple times a ‘day’ in the form of small prey animals that Levi could easily corner or stalk down despite the odd casing still on his left leg that inhibited him in terms of his normal speed and finesse. But he couldn’t be too bitter about it for the fact that he still managed to sink his teeth into soft flesh and warm blood greeted his tongue for his efforts.

Hell, honestly was eating more and more regularly than he had ever in his life. Usually one of the long-eared hoppers were enough to sustain him for a day. It didn’t mean that he wasn’t hungry after only one meal, but it was survivable and normal to Levi.

Now he was devouring two hoppers and a handful of small skittering creatures that were basically bite sized snacks. The tiny prey animals were a source of amusement in the blandness of his strange prison. Hunting, stalking, and chasing them was a way to pass the time and to keep his sanity as there was little else to do once they were sent down to feed his stomach.

The rest of his time was spent lounging on the hot rock, relishing in the heat that radiated into his very bones. Though in the back of his mind he was disturbed by the presence of the stone. After all, his instincts were telling him that the approaching winter’s chill should already be upon him and that his muscles ought to be twitching with constant shivers. 

The magic rock was wonderful, so Levi told the worrying part of his mind to fuck off and let him enjoy this one thing.

Another disturbing occurrence that has happening far too frequently for Levi’s taste was sleeping spells. One minute he was fine and then it was like his eyelids weighed the same as a mountain. When he woke up he was always in a different position or spot than where he had fallen asleep and the smells that clung to him made his scales crawl.

The Takers were touching him when he was out and even if he couldn’t detect their scent, there were other clues to their interference. The color of the resilient shell on his leg would often have changed some way when he woke up and there were strange smells that came from it that drove him mad for a while.

One time, Levi woke up and found that the claws on one of his hands had been cut and it had taken a ‘day’ of frenzied scraping against the rocks of the odd den to reshape them into something useful.

If they had wanted to make him defenseless then why only take the claws of one appendage? Also, why were they allowing him to sharpen them once more?

Yes, Levi knew that somehow the Takers must be watching him. His theory confirmed after the first eight ‘days’ when he had taken a bad tumble from the top of the den when he was in a half-asleep state. Only seconds later a part of one of the walls shimmered and seemed to just disappear. A Taker was standing there, eyes wide and mouth producing noises that made absolutely no sense.

While there had been fear in him for getting close to the taller creature, this was the first time that Levi had seen a possible escape route and he quickly darted towards the symmetrical gap…

Only to bash himself into some kind of invisible barrier.

Pained and confused Levi retreated a few steps, keeping crouched as running on four limbs was faster than on two. Standing up and trying to make himself bigger would be a wasted effort with the fact that even if he did so he would barely reach the waist of the rather short Taker. That didn’t stop himself from spreading his wings to appear wider, but the appendages would snap closed the instant if he needed to flee or he could take to the air and try to claw the Taker’s face off. Levi could only stay air born for a few short minutes before he would grow tried and be forced back to the ground.

The other had jumped back after Levi’s attempt, but soon returned to be closer to the opening. Honey colored eyes watching him and its red hair shining in the unnatural light that also existed beyond Levi’s cave.

As time passed and neither of the pair moved, then the Taker crouched down which immediately made a growl rumble out of Levi. He wasn’t sure if the other was preparing to rush him or tricking him into relaxing. However, no other action was made and it annoyed Levi , this lack of…. Something.

He didn’t like the uncertainty of his future or the unpredictability of these Takers. They didn’t seem to react as any other of their kind that Levi had ever come across. Levi hated it with the omission that their strangeness was what was keeping Levi from being killed by one of those burning light, hard stone throwing, and loud noise makers that other Takers seemed to be so fond of carrying.

There were usually only two reactions that were produced from the two-legged beasts when they crossed one of Levi’s own.

The Takers running away while making a deafening racket or trying to kill the much smaller predator with an equal amount of noise. 

 But this one just sat before the opening and stared at him inquisitively. Eventually, Levi’s own curiosity became too powerful for himself to ignore and he crept a little closer. The tip of his tail twitching and whole body flinching whenever the Taker took a particularly deep breath or twitched from muscles staying in the same position for too long.

He examined the clear barrier with interest, scratching and tapping at it with his claws listening for any hint of a weak spot. When there didn’t appear to be one, he ran his fingers along the bottom of the invisible annoyance, but it seemed to be completely flush against the floor. Levi realized that the same could be said along the sides of and top of the barrier as well.

Internally, Levi delighted at the flinch he got from the Taker when he took flight suddenly to examine the top of the barrier. His efforts were for naught though and he dropped back to the ground moodily. Glaring at both the opening and the creature behind it as he tried to puzzle them out.

One could see through a sheet of ice, Levi knew this, but there was no coldness to the barrier when he touched it.

It was frustrating and just wrong to Levi, but with little else to do he ended up staring at the Taker before him. It was female from what he guessed with the smallness of her form and the protrusions from her chest that some of her species had.

Still he couldn’t be sure for the simple fact that Levi couldn’t smell her. There seemed to be no air flowing from the tunnel to Levi’s cave meaning her scent never came to him. It was unnerving to be able to see and hear, but not smell something. It made his insides curl uncomfortably to be without one of his senses and briefly he feared that he had lost it. A sniff to the infuriating shell around his leg and getting the sharp tang from it assured Levi that that wasn’t the case.

 The Taker had taken something flat and rectangular from her strange removable pelt and started to draw and tap her strange claw-less fingers across its surface as she constantly glanced from it to him.

Eventually, Levi grew bored with his observations that made no sense and resulted in nothing. So he made his way from the opening and he trotted back to his den, though he walked sideways to always have an eye on the Taker. After flopping on top of the den opening he watched the Taker for the next few hours from the edge of his vision. But the other didn’t do anything of interest.

No, she simply stood up after a time and walked out of sight. However, when Levi went to investigate after a few minutes he saw that the barrier was still in place and the tunnel beyond it was empty of any other signs of life.

The following day a new routine had formed with the opening remaining and a Taker coming to stand or sit in front of it for a few hours to observe Levi. Each new face and voice he was gradually beginning to recognize though he still had no scent to add to them. The number of them was alarming to Levi as he wondered if all Takers lived in big groups like this. This collection of them also wore the same long white removable pelt over top of some varied other pieces.

Maybe the Takers had such a poor sense of smell that they had to wear the same thing for them to recognize each other as belonging to their pack. They had had differing personalities as well that freed Levi somewhat from his agonizing mix of boredom and anxiety by examining them.

There were repeated words that the Takers called each other that Levi realized slowly to be what they refereed to themselves as. The red haired small female that he had first encountered was called _Nifa_ , the darkest haired male _Kenji_ , the male wearing the strange thing of his face _Goggles_ , the female wearing a different strange thing on her face and pale hair _Rico_ , the light-haired male that was always scuttling back and forth _Moblit_ , and finally _Hanji_.

The last Taker baffled Levi the most. She also was apparently the leader of the Takers from the way that the rest behaved around her. A twitter from her and the others would hop to some confusing task. Despite not wanting to admit it to himself, Hanji was… intimidating.

No matter how he snarled, swiped, charged, or smacked himself against the barrier, the female as she flinched back would only let out a squealing sound that he realized was the Taker version of laughing before she would start cooing and babbling at him again. She was the only one who would touch the barrier from her side and Levi grossed to himself at how much larger the appendage was to his own when he held it up against the barrier to compare it to her own.

The resulting sound she had made had startled Levi bad enough to have him racing back into his den and refusing to come out until she left.

The days continued in this fashion before yet another change to the routine took place, this one by far the most nerve-wracking for Levi.

The Takers started to _enter_ his prison.

Hanji was the one that did it first, her smell and a small hissing sound had jerked Levi’s focus away from the hopper he was half-heartedly stalking. Immediately, he had backed himself up to crouch on the top of his den, silver blue eyes glaring at the Taken that dared to encroach on his reluctantly claimed territory.

While he certainly didn’t want to be in the strange cave, it was his now and Dracos did not like to share.

His snarls and growls had little affect however as she only cooed and barred her teeth at him in that odd way that the rest of her kind seemed fond of doing. The show of teeth would be a threat display to any other creature, but that concept didn’t seem to apply to Takers as they did it so often to each other and no violence usually followed.

As time passed in silence of the two staring each other down, Levi decided to test his limits, he gave a half charge at the female. His reward though was only a step back, but she returned to her original position after a few moments of Levi not making a move to get closer.

Levi, while desperate to escape, wasn’t stupid or suicidal. He knew what strange weapons Takers had at their disposal and he had a better chance of learning how to fly without wings than surviving a hit from them.

No, he could only hope to squeeze through the opening fast enough if Hanji ever moved far enough away from it. That never happened and after some time the Taker eventually left after a hiss came from the opening and after she passed through it the hiss came again.

Levi crept slowly towards it, but was disappointed to find the invisible barrier had returned. Perhaps it was something that only Takers could pass through?

Frustratingly, he couldn’t wrap his head around such a concept. He continued to be unable to do so as now each of the Takers had gotten into the habit of entering his cave the following days. Like Hanji they did little other than chatter at him, some more than others, while standing in front of the opening. Levi wasn’t sure what they were trying to accomplish, but gradually he was getting used to their visits, smells, and presence. After all, there was little that he could do to protest it when his growls and posturing was ignored.

Eventually, he stopped flinching at the sound of their voices and could relax while keeping only one eye on them.

Still Levi always firmly maintained himself to be at least one and a half of his own body length away from any of the two-leggers.

Gradually, the pain in his leg was decreasing through all of this. After one sleeping spell, Levi was shocked to wake up to the fact that the stubborn as a tick shell around his leg was gone.

Levi spent a long time delighting in actually being able to scratch and itch at the skin that had been barred from him for so long. He could also examine the remains of the damage the trap had inflicted on him so long ago. A line of thick scar tissue prevented scales from growing back and Levi knew that he would have to be careful from now on to make sure he didn’t get cuts there without the protection of tougher skin and scales.

Other than some lingering soreness from time to time, Levi was grateful that he finally had full use of his limbs again.

However, while one problem was fixed, another, more confusing one began.

Levi knew what it was the moment that he had woken up, a light sheen of his sweat clinging to his skin and shivers running up his frame constantly. The base of his tail ached and there was a sweet scent in the air that he realized unfortunately came from himself.

He was in heat.

Why the fuck was he in heat _now_?

Mating season was in fall which had already passed, he had already suffered through it once! Why was it happening again so soon?

Trying to shift himself up onto his feet, Levi almost crumpled back down as a low keen escaped him. His lower regions aching with the unsuppressed need for something to fill him. Body calling for him to find an Alpha or Beta to breed with so he could soon be swollen with eggs.

Fuck that.

Levi sneered at the thought of caving to another Draco.

While it was rare as he was an Omega, Levi was the undisputed leader of his small trio of a fellow Omega and her Beta mate. Levi would easily overpower and outmaneuver both of the pair, taking his position seriously as the main provider and protector of them. It was only while he was in heat that the two were able to return the favor.

As desire and instincts tore through him, his pack would watch over him. Then again, watch wasn’t exactly the right word to use. The pair would barricade Levi into the den, preventing him from going out in search for another Draco to fill him. While all three would come out of Levi’s heat cycle bloodied and bruised it was better than the alternative. If Levi did become mated, that would be in the end of their pack.

At least that for sure would be the result if Levi bred with an Alpha.

Alphas had no tolerance for Betas if they were not their own mate and Farlan would be attacked and run off. Isabel, while she would be a slightly more tolerable presence, would have no other choice but to follow Farlan as their bond demanded they stay together. A Beta might allow for Isabel and Farlan's company, it would be strained and doomed to fail once Isabel’s eggs hatched. The dominant of a mating pair, had little desire to be in the presence of the young not born of itself.

Isabel and Farlan wouldn’t be able to put up a fight about either themselves or Levi and his mate leaving.

Eventually, they all knew that instincts would win out.

His heart clenched at the thought of the pair.

How big was Isabel now as the eggs continued to grow inside of her? Farlan must be close to losing his mind dealing with her mood swings and increased appetite from being eggheavy. Were they getting enough to eat with his absence?

It was still a long way off from the laying and hatching, but Levi found himself day dreaming about how their young might look. What colors and patterns would they have, would they be excitable like Isabel, calm and calculating like Farlan, or a mixture of the two?

Levi wanted to know the answer, but he was starting to doubt whether or not he’d get the chance.

Wallowing in grief and his own scent wasn’t something that Levi could do for long. Ignoring the twinges that ran through his body in protest, Levi forced himself out of the den and over to the magic hot rock. Maybe the heat would ironically help him deal with the other kind of heat as his muscles continued to cramp.

Surprisingly, it seemed to give some relief and Levi felt like the tension was melting away like the snow in the bright sunshine. The first day of heat was always the hardest with his body trying to prepare itself for breeding and instincts not quite winning the battle yet to drive him out of his logical mind.

The first day effects left him feeling achy and grumpy as he knew all too well what was to come and he couldn’t do a gods damned thing about it.

A familiar hiss came from the opening and Levi only had the gumption to crack open an eye to glare at the intruders.

It was Hanji and Moblit, the latter holding one of those black rectangular things they all seemed to like carrying. The male’s eyes were flashing across the top of it, to Hanji, and to Levi quickly in a cycle.

 _“I guess the supplements and injections were successful in artificially inducing a heat after all. His hormone levels have spiked and he’s showing all the assumed early signs.”_ Moblit muttered, his brows raised like he was not quite believing what he was seeing.

 _“Yes! I told you my calculations were correct, the hormone supplements were only part of it though, we’ve also kept the room the temperature typical of early fall and lowering it slightly each night before heating it up for the morning. There’s also the rule for all animals of calories in and production out. Shorty’s put on considerable weight since he was brought in with feeding and limited exercise.”_ Hanji crowed, bouncing on the balls of her feet as their goal seemed to be coming ever closer to fruition.

 _“I’m still not sure if we should go through with this now… Maybe it is better to hold off to a natural cycle.”_ He was still reluctant, there was no need to rush forward in his mind. Both Shorty and Titan had many years ahead of them in their life cycle where they could be able to breed.

_“If we wait then we’re just going to keep putting it off.”_

_“N-Not necessarily, but we could give it more time. Shorty might still need more time to adjust to captivity.”_ Moblit sighed as he knew he had a faulty argument, but he and the rest of the crew were worried about possibly losing the Omega permanently.

_“Moving him to several different enclosures will just be more stressful over time. Better to do it only once and be done with it. Moving from this quarantine room to a larger more naturalistic one might just be what Cupid ordered. It can be Cupid and a doctor, shut up.”_

_“You’re sure that we have all the precautions we need?”_ Moblit was grasping for straws, though he cracked a small smile at the joke.

Hanji only raised a brow.  _“You tell me Mobly, you’re the one in charge of that.”_

 _“Then… Yes.”_ He admitted with a sigh of defeat.

Levi growled softly in protest to the noise the two were making, he wanted to be alone and the weird sounds their mouths produced were giving him a headache.

 _“I think that’s our cue to leave the poor guy alone. Periods aren’t that nice in the human realm, I don’t think that it is much different for animals in heat.”_ Hanji cooed, taking a step out of the room.

 _“I didn’t need that image in my head, but no I suppose not.”_ Moblit answered as they exited the chamber and headed to the control room.

“Everything will be ready the day after tomorrow.”

*****

Levi was really getting sick of this waking up in random positions and places without any memory of doing so. His current surroundings though… were far different than what he had experienced since his capture.

For a brief moment he wondered if his time with the strange Takers had been some deranged dream, as his head was resting against soft earth and the smell of the wind carding through trees greeted his nose once more. Hope flared inside of Levi as he started to gather his limbs underneath him.

That was a bad decision.

The ache of heat was like a boulder smacking into him and a gasp was ripped from him. Fuck, still he forced himself up onto all fours, gaze flickering about his new surroundings. The grass wasn’t too tall, there were trees and shrubs scattered thickly around making it difficult to see too far through it.

Taking a glance behind him, Levi felt his heart sink.

There was a strange wall behind him and while it was filled with uncountable holes, a push and tug at it revealed that it was unfortunately very solid. Panic gripped him and despite the pain radiating from his hips Levi found himself tearing across the ground. He ran along the wall, striking it from time to time with his tail or claws to test if it had any give.

No such luck and eventually he found himself panting at the spot he had first woken up. This was a new prison and a glance up at the sky made him groan, there was more of the odd wall stretching over the top as well, flight wasn’t the answer for escape either.

While these surroundings were far more agreeable, Levi still felt little comfort.

Just great, he didn’t know what was worse, a cage that teased him with freedom or those glaring white walls of the cave he was in before.

There was another twinge in his abdomen and the sweet smell seemed to thicken around him further making him let out a half-strangled whine. His head felt like it had been stuffed full of the fluff that fell from the trees in summer. It made excellent nesting material, but was a pain in the ass to gather. Now that his mind had accepted that escape wasn’t possible it had switched priorities to that of his heat and need to be filled in a specific carnal way.

Well his body could just… Well anything _other_ than what it was doing or wanting. That would be great.

Gritting his teeth as another dull throb of pain rolled though him, Levi lowered himself to lay flat on the ground hoping the cool moss would provide him some relief. It helped a little and after some time he felt up to exploring more of the central areas of the prison instead of the edges. The first thing of interest he came across was a large pool, the water clear and he could even see the slippery silvery forms of prey swimming lazily in its depths.

Well there was a source of food, even if fishing as the one thing that Levi was shit at when it came to hunting.

Well water and food were secured so that was a relief, though he suspected that the Takers would have provided it somehow if not. They had bothered to keep him alive for this long and he couldn’t think of him having done something to make them change their minds.

Then again, he hardly understood the thought process of those strange beasts.

As Levi lowered his head to take a drink from the cool, refreshing water, his thoughts were too fogged up with a multitude of things to notice his surroundings. He didn't think he needed to after being in solitude for so long in his old cage. 

As such, he didn’t realize there was a figure crouched on the other side of the pool, green orbs locked on his small frame and golden scales glinting in the light as muscles gathered themselves under them.

**

It was the moment of truth and Hanji was biting her knuckles as her knees bounced anxiously. The rest of the team weren’t in much better state. This was the moment that they were both waiting for and dreading. All their efforts could be destroyed in a split second, sure they had measures set up, but would they be fast enough if things went south?

They had people, trained sharp shooters from the military involved, armed with tranquilizer darts that would hopefully knock out a Draco near instantly. The group was sitting on top of the enclosure wearing special suits that hid them from both smell and sight.

This meeting needed to go as naturally as possible.

They had already interfered enough as it was with pumping Shorty full of hormones. Titan had been given a slight sedative along with his own small douse of hormones.

They were stacking the scales in the Omega’s favor, now all they could do is watch.

**

Eren stared, he wasn’t quite yet able to do anything else but that as his eyes hungrily took in the small creature in front of him. Something inside of him screamed that the other wasn’t food, yet by the same token something about the silver scaled male’s scent made his mouth water.

Eren’s insides seemed to be squirming as he examined the Draco just across the pool from him, never before had he seen another of his own kind that was so _little_.

There was also a distinct lack of thick fur that ran along his spine and down to his tail-tip like Eren had.

Had the poor thing lost his mane somehow?

It hit Eren then that there were no bars separating them from each other, if he wanted to he could touch the other Draco as much and how he pleased.  

Also, why should he not? Eren was much bigger than the other Draco and there would be no reason for the other to deny him. A part of him was pondering why he wasn’t wanting to tear the smaller creature limb from limb like he did whenever he caught the scent of another of his species on his big funny speaking companions.

No, this scent as different than the ones he knew from so long ago.

His head cocked as he realized that the smell wasn’t exactly unfamiliar either, but Eren couldn’t quite place it yet.

His hand shifted on the bank of the pond in annoyance at not being able to recognize the reason, his actions uprooted a small rock and caused it to skitter across the stone and plop in the water. The noise made the smaller Draco’s head snap up and for a moment both froze, green clashed with blue eyes so pale they appeared silver.

Then a low, nasty snarl came from the smaller form, the grey and black dotted scaled wings snapping open, tail raising high with the tip twitching in agitation, spines along his spine lifting in threat, and the stranger had his front pressed almost to the ground in an effort to keep his throat protected as his head craned back on instinct to use the spikes at the base of his skull to protect the nape of his neck.

Why the hell was the other spoiling for a fight, when Eren hadn’t even fucking done anything yet?! This was Eren’s territory, he might have only been given it today, but it was his! Where did the other get off growling at him?

“Fuck off, Alpha.”

The words shocked Eren, not just because they were harsh and vulgar, but for the fact that the other had spoken at all. It had been a few weeks since had been able to converse with any of his kind. Usually when he was outside he could shout insults which would be returned by voices from the Dracos he had known for a long time but now were kept far enough away that Eren could no longer smell or see them. However, recently the door that led to the outdoors had been sealed. Despite his whining and pawing at it pointedly when his two-legs came to visit him, they ignored it.

The word made a shiver run across his flesh, though it was spoken in obvious scorn and anger it caused the opposite in Eren.

While he had grown mostly without the presence of adults of his kind, there was some inherited knowledge that seemed to have been bred into Eren’s very being. Which was the basic, if not slightly spotty understanding of what Alpha, Beta, and Omega dynamics were.

Eren understood that he was an Alpha, had experienced the frustration of rut and knew that somehow an Omega or Beta would remedy his anguish.

Omegas were the choice that made his inner beast howl and keen with desire. There was a promise that came with the word that Eren could taste on his tongue but could not explain.

Another deep breath through his nose and a rumbling purr escaped him, the scent that the smaller Draco exuded was overpowering.

The noise made the dark-haired male take a step back.

That was the first mistake.

The movement triggered a primal reaction, the only thing that retreated was prey and now, this silver skinned, beautiful creature belonged to Eren.

“Omega.” The word was uttered in a voice so low that Eren almost didn’t recognize it as originating from himself.

Then the Omega made his second mistake… he ran.

**_The chase was on._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long wait, life got crazy for me on my side with work and studying for and passing my Japanese Driving exam. Hopefully things will settle down more and I can get back to writing more. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this chapter, now that we have all of the skeleton of the world assembled, we will be focusing much more on Levi and Eren's err.... relationship. 
> 
> Levi needs to run faster.
> 
> Well please leave a comment, it really makes my day even if I'm terrible at replying to them! Tell me what you think might happen next!


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